John Howard Payne Papers, 3-Volume Set: Volumes 7-14 of the Payne-Butrick Papers

This collection of the John Howard Payne Papers, volumes 7-14, is a significant recovery of firsthand political and social histories of Indigenous cultures, particularly the Cherokees, a southeastern tribe, whose ancestral lands included parts of the present-day states of Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, and North Carolina. The papers enable readers to understand how the Cherokees and many other American Indians endured and persevered as they encountered forced removal in the 1830s due to the Indian Removal Act. The papers are also a source of cultural revitalization, elucidating the work of Sequoyah, a Cherokee genius, who in 1821 introduced his syllabary, a phonemic system with eighty-six symbols.

John Howard Payne (1791-1852), an American actor, poet, and playwright, was so taken by the Cherokees' story that he lobbied Congress to forgo their removal and wrote articles in contemporary newspapers supporting Cherokees. In 1835 Payne journeyed to the Cherokee Nation and met with John Ross, Cherokee chief from 1828 to 1866, who found in Payne a colleague to assist him and other Cherokees with their cause against removal and in preserving their ancient social, spiritual, and political heritages. Payne gathered and recorded correspondence between Cherokees such as Ross, who was fluent in English, and U.S. officials. These papers include multiple correspondences, ratified and unratified treaties, contemporary newspaper articles, and resolutions sent to Congress appealing for Cherokee justice. Payne also assembled letters and writings by New England Congregationalist missionaries, who resided in mission stations throughout the Cherokee Nation.

Available in print for the first time, this remarkable repository of information provides a fuller understanding of the political climates Cherokees encountered throughout the early to mid-nineteenth century than has ever been available before.

• Format: Product Bundle
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0803243871
• ISBN13: 9780803243873
• Release Date: November 2022
• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
• Length: 1264 Pages
• Weight: 7.04 lbs.
• Dimensions: 5.2" x 8.0" x 10.7"